Ron Launius

Ronald Lee "Ron" Launius (18 May 1944-1 July 1981) was the leader of the Wonderland Gang of Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. He was one of the victims of the 1981 Wonderland murders, during which he was murdered by John C. Holmes; his wife Susan Launius survived with grave head injuries.

Biography
Ron Launius was born in Sacramento, California in 1944, and he served in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. Launius became involved with drug trafficking in Vietnam, smuggling heroin back into the United States by hiding the drugs in the corpses of American soldiers. Launius was dishonorably discharged after being convicted for heroin smuggling, and he was involved in around 27 homicides in the Sacramento area during the early 1970s. In May 1974, he was arrested for the 1973 murder of a police drug informant, but the charges were dropped when the key witness was killed in a police shootout. Launius later served three years in prison for smuggling heroin and cocaine across the USA/Mexico border.

Launius would become the leader of the "Wonderland Gang" in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, with his wife Susan Launius and several of his criminal and drug associates also being members. The gang robbed rival drug dealers and carried out burglaries, sustaining their drug habits. Launius, a collector of rare firearms, intended to sell his guns to nightclub mogul Eddie Nash in exchange for cocaine and china, but Nash said that the guns were too high-end to be sold. Nash kept the guns rather than return them, however, and Launius forced John C. Holmes to draw a map of Nash's house in order to burgle it. Launius and his gang launched an armed robbery of the house, and Launius shoved a gun in Launius' mouth, forcing him to give up the combination to a safe containing a large amount of money. Launius then recovered his pistols, and the gang stole $1.2 million worth of cash, drugs, and merchandise. Nash decided to have the criminals murdered for robbing him and beating him up.

On 1 July 1981, Greg Diles and a few other henchmen entered the Wonderland apartment, with Holmes gaining access through the front door after Deverell buzzed him in. The henchmen used striated lead pipes to brutally murder the people in the apartment, with Launius being attacked in his bed. Diles delivered the first few blows while Holmes, who had been publicly humiliated by Launius onmany occasions, delivered the skull-breaking blows to Launius.